Words: anchor, n. and vb.

CLOSE STUDENTS of this column know that it is a while since I have steeled myself to read The Grocer; a substitute, equally grim, comes in a letter from MP Ivor Caplin in reply to a protest about his plans to make Hove's old gas-works into a supermarket and multi-storey, when everybody clamours for a park.

He counters that his will be an "anchor store" for the nabe. Not in the OED, this phrase suggests nautical supplies (already adequately met), but turns out to mean something that, in the event, will create waves, a veritable tsunami of pollution. Anchor comes from the Greek for hook, but as used in Hamlet to mean anchorite, it is Greek for secluding oneself; something which Mr Caplin's plans might force civilised constituents to do.